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White Soup Stock

A clear veal stock made by simmering veal knuckle, onion, celery, and seasonings for several hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,518 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

White Soup Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stock

  1. Cut the meat into small pieces.

  2. Put the meat, bone, water, and seasonings into a kettle.

  3. Heat gradually to boiling, skim, and simmer for 4 to 5 hours.

  4. Strain the stock.

Clarify

  1. To clarify, for each quart of stock, use the white and shell of 1 egg or 1 whole egg.

  2. Remove fat from the top of the cold stock and place it in a stew pan.

  3. Beat the egg white slightly and add it and the shell to the stock.

  4. Stir until it boils, then set aside for a few minutes.

  5. Strain again.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Veal + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,841 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Veal + celerytop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,336 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Knuckle of veal
Provides meat, bone and gelatin that give the stock body and richness.
Cold water
Extracts flavour and collagen from the bone and meat during slow simmering.
Egg (in the method)
Its white and shell collect fine particles, clarifying the stock to a clear result.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and savoury depth to the stock.
Celery
Contributes aroma and subtle vegetal flavour to the stock.

The step that matters

Heat gradually to boiling, then skim. Heating slowly lets impurities and coagulated proteins rise to the surface where they can be skimmed off. Rapid boiling breaks them up and leaves the stock cloudy and greasy.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, onion):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Celerythe original
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Thymefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, onion. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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